Roxas Files Bill To Ensure Farmer/Fishermen’s Land Tenure Through Land, Support

Senator Mar Roxas last week filed a bill seeking to ensure the land tenure of farmers and fishermen over public lands they presently cultivate through a free patent system.

"We should fulfill the promise to farmers and fishermen that they finally own the land they and their ancestors have tilled and lived on," he said.

"Farmers and fishermen rely on land for their livelihood. If we don’t give them a chance to own this land, as if we’ve declared that they will never be able to hold onto their destiny," he said.

Senate Bill No. 3202 proposes a mechanism that seeks to ensure equitable access to, and ownership of, alienable and disposable lands of public domain by: farmers who have continuously occupied and cultivated a parcel of such public land by themselves or by their predecessors; and fishermen who have been living along coastal areas and similar areas of the public domain near their fishing ground.

The bill proposes that any natural-born citizen who has been, or through his predecessor-in-interest, residing on a parcel of untitled land of the public domain for 10 years, under a bona fide claim of acquisition of ownership, is entitled to have a free patent issued to him for the said parcel of land.

Those accorded with a free patent are not allowed to sell or convert the land into other uses within five years after such free patent is issued. Similarly, the bill proposes a 20-year ban against large-scale conversions of public lands. The bill also proposes criminal penalties for persons who obstruct or impede the acquisition of a free patent by a farmer or fisherman, or those who sell, transfer or acquire land of public domain to circumvent the proposed law.

"Land is not everything. This bill mandates the Agriculture, Trade and Environment Departments and other government agencies to give support to these farmers and fishermen who were awarded with a free patent," he stressed.

Roxas also filed Senate Resolution No. 1045 which seeks a probe into the status of implementation of the Public Land Act vis-à-vis farmers’ and fishermen’s access to and ownership of public lands. /MP